[SVXRide]

Mike,
1. Well, the R-comps have to get warmed up before they stick really well. When they're cold, they probably stick less than street tires. This is why you don't want to hammer them on your first run (i.e., this is why you spun....don't worry, I almost spun the first time I ran on cold R-comps ). Make a habit of putting your hand on the surface of each tire immediately after each run to see how they're heating up. This, along with the shoe polish trick mentioned below, will go a long way to getting the tire pressures just right. (note: 95 degrees ambient versus 65 degrees ambient is HUGE when it comes to tires warming up. You also didn't mention how much time you had to wait between runs. The ambient at the last FedEx event was ~70 degrees and I had to wait so long between runs that my tires never really got heated up - which meant that even on my last run it felt like I was driving my old '68 Camaro!)

2. You're going to want to crank in at least 1.5 degrees of negative camber front and rear to help the handling and with getting the tires up to temp faster.

3. Might want to play with the tire pressures a bit -- 25 is really low for the rear. Might want to start with 32 rear and 38 front and then check the pressure after each run (i.e. they'll go up as the tires heat up). Try the white liquid shoe polish trick on the sidewalls (perpendicular stripes 180degs) and then see how much of the polish has worn off after your run -- this will tell you how much you're rolling over on the tires. There are little triangles on the VictoRacers' sidewall and you want to roll to the top of them and no farther.

4. With the s/c you're putting a lot of power down to the ground, so you'll want to pay more attention to how you modulate the throttle. It took me until my fourth run when I was driving Dave and Ben's "RaceCar" to get used to its throttle response (due to its much lighter weight).

5. Finally....let's see you were 20 SECONDS behind the STis at FedEx and now you're within single digit seconds of them . As long as you're getting faster with every run, you're doing the right things!!

-Bill